How Russia will celebrate Halloween

Only one in twenty Russians plans to celebrate Halloween, according to public opinion poll. Source: Prokhor Kolosov

Ever popular in the U.S., Halloween remains a rather exotic and ambiguous holiday in Russia. The country’s youth are happy to take on the trappings of All Saints’ Day, but, for the Orthodox Church, even this is too much.

{***Halloween in Russia — not quite Halloween***}

Halloween in Russia — not quite Halloween

According
to sociologists at the Levada Center, Russians know about Halloween, but are
not yet ready to celebrate it en masse. In Russia, four out of five people are
aware that Oct. 31 is the date of “horrible” Halloween, on the eve of All
Saints’ Day. Only one in twenty Russians, however, plans to observe this
holiday. Traditionally, it is extremely popular with American youth.

Related:

Daria,
a student at Moscow State University, is one of the few in Russia who have adopted
this Anglo-Saxon festival as their own.

“Every year we go to a club or a
Halloween party, or we hold a fancy-dress bash at home. Besides, costumes
and pumpkins, you can’t do without horror movies, creepy ambient music, and
scary stories!”

Foreigners
in Russia react to Russian Halloween with skepticism, noting the superficial
attitude toward the traditions of All Saints’ Day.

“In Russia, it’s only a
holiday for young people who do not respect the traditions; it’s just an excuse
to wear a costume,” said Ashley, a native of Canada who has been living in
Moscow for several years.

However,
this approach more than agrees with owners of costume stores and entertainment
venues.

“It is the most fun and colorful show of the year. On Halloween night,
we are always sold out and there’s always a positive atmosphere. Only New Year
can compete,” said Alexander, an administrator at a Moscow night club.

As
the day approaches, the excitement gathers momentum – particularly for the
festive costumes. Most of the accessories for Halloween are bought at the last
minute.

“Every year, people go straight from the shop to a party in their
new disguises,” said Tatiana, owner of a Moscow costume store that has been
selling Halloween garb for six years.

Year-after-year, the most popular
costumes in late October have included zombies, Dracula, evil nurses, pirates,
sailors, witches, devils, fairy-tale characters, vampires, and horror
villains.

Despite
its seemingly innocuous nature, the Orthodox Church looks on the holiday as an
“evil carnival.”

“Behind
all the masquerading of Halloween, of course, lies the loneliness of modern man
in a secular world, his spiritual desolation, perhaps his search for a place to
call his own, and even a certain degree of spiritual barbarism,” said Georgi
Zavershinsky, priest and head of the communications service of the Department
for External Church Relations.

“In no way does the Church consider Halloween to
be a [religious] festival, and it does not regard it possible for believers to
adopt its traditions, given their undesirability and incompatibility with
Russian culture,” said Georgi. The priest believes that
the Western tradition of Halloween is still alien “to Orthodox culture and to
Russian culture, in general.”

In
this regard, the Russian Orthodox Church is not very interested in the
experience and attitude of its Catholic and Protestant colleagues.

“Even the
Vatican’s attitude toward this holiday is, if not positive, at least neutral
and calm. But Halloween in Russia provokes quite a negative response from the
Orthodox Church,” said Ivar Maksutov, director of the Moscow Religious Studies
Society. “According to our traditions, All Saints’ Day never acquired the form
of a carnival. Carnivals are generally quite a rare phenomenon in Russian
culture, and the reason is not entirely clear. So all this dressing up is
essentially theatrical, and has no underlying cultural roots."

"The
Orthodox Church has always held a conservative attitude toward such phenomenon.
Especially when the occasion is tinged with a certain confessional tone that
seeks to emulate a religious environment, the negative reaction is quite
understandable,” Maksutov added.

Interestingly,
some regional officials have gone a step further and tried to covertly ban
Halloween, at least in schools.

“Halloween contains religious elements – the
cult, personification, and even mockery of death, evil spirits, etc. – that
contradict the secular nature of education and can damage pupils’ mental and
moral health,” the Ministry of Education of Karelia stated in a letter (leaked
online) addressed to the heads of local authorities responsible for education.

Fortunately
for lovers of costume parties, the initiative soon fizzled out. Perhaps another
reason why Russia’s young people are not entirely in step with the traditions
of the festival is that not all of them dress up as dark forces or evil
spirits.

Vladimir, who owns a large online store of carnival costumes, notes
that, in late October, people are happy to wear period costumes. This interest
can be traced to the more traditional or historical dress found in other
countries.